In the Midst of SAA 2009

So how are things at the gates of hell, also known as Austin, Texas in August? Fine, it is surely doing well for me as I am sure to have sweated off some pounds walking about the streets of Austin.

To recap:

We arrived here on Wednesday afternoon. We had two slight hiccups on Tuesday night. As most of you know, we we booked on a flight out of BWI at 9:30 on Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, I planned to take SoBA to his nana's, while the rest of the BA clan headed for the Lone Star State. On Tuesday morning, after a call from Mrs. BA, I learned that SoBA was in need of another ER visit after falling at daycare. He fell into a table and had bitten his lip pretty badly. So off I went to meet Mrs. BA and SoBA at the hospital. It turned out not to be so bad and I headed for my MIL's place on the Eastern Shore. We had a nice afternoon and evening and after a bath, put him in his jammies and he settled down to watch a show with Nana. I kissed him good bye and told him I loved him and that I would see him in a few days. I choked back the tears that were welling and slipped out.

The other hiccup occurred when Mrs. BA realized she had left her walled at the pool on Tuesday night. She realized this at 10:30 on Tuesday night and the pool was now closed. Normally the pool opens at 11:00 an hour and a half after our flight was scheduled to leave. We soon determined that adult lap swimming started at 6:30 each morning and there would be someone at the pool to give her a chance to find her wallet. After one trip, where she was unsuccessful, we loaded the car and prepared to head for the airport and decided to give it one more look. I had the lifeguard open the locked area where the computer is kept and lo and behold, there was the wallet. Crisis averted, we headed for the airport.

We had an uneventful flight(s) to Austin, with a layover in Dallas (due to the passage of the Wright Amendment, wherein most flights in and out of Texas have to go through Dallas-Fort Worth, resulting in a short hop from Dallas to Austin (only 40 minutes in the air). We arrived at the conference hotel in plenty of time to make ready for my outing to Round Rock Baseball. We had a good crowd and watch for a post about the game soon.

Thursday was a day of sessions, you can read a recap of the session I attended here. Saturday morning I will close out the conference with another session. Mrs. BA is also on the schedule for a session presentation tomorrow. For lunch on Thursday, I had a great lunch with J in PA and ArchivesNext at Carmelo's, across the street from the hotel. Bananas Foster made tableside made the lunch extra special. On Thursday evening, Mr. and Mrs. BA, along with Mr. and Mrs. OSG arranged for babysitting services and headed out to a great restaurant, Fonda San Miguel, in North Austin, to celebrate Mrs BA's and Mr. OSG's birthday.

On Friday, Mrs. BA headed for the sessions and I accompanied LBA and Mrs. OSG and Little OSG to the Austin Children's Museum. We met up with Mr. OSG and Mrs. BA for lunch at the Iron Works for BBQ. It is most appropriately referred to as a "joint," or perhaps "a hole in the wall." But boy is the food good. I spent Friday afternoon, losing another election - I was one of five people vying for one spot on a steering committee for a section to which I belong. From there, I went and conducted an Oral History interview with one of the legends in the profession. It was a great interview. Then I went to the Presidential Address plenary portion of the conference and then a mini-tweetup in the hotel bar, possibly the founding meeting of the Beer Roundtable.

For dinner, the OSG family and the BA clan headed around the corner from the hotel to try out another local eatery, this time Moonshine. It is possible that we all came very close (again) to having to put our heads down on the table. From there we attempted to catch the bats coming out of the Congress Street Bridge, but missed the majority of them leaving for the evening's feeding. Perhaps tomorrow night. It is now too late to be doing anything more than heading to bed.

With Saturday tomorrow - and our last full day in Austin, there are more sessions to attend and some sights to see. The state capitol and the LBJ museum are topping the list. Another update to come soon.